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Sunday, 10 November 2013

Yesterday morning,
I read a quote on Kevin Maxwell’s blog that may not fit on a placard but will
definitely serve well in a heated discussion where participants are open to
some persuasion.

A bit about Kevin
Maxwell; he ticks many boxes that define the struggles that minorities face in
being treated with respect, with dignity, if need be, some sensitivity and
where the environment might tend to hostility, the force of the law and the
reorientation of the mind and mind-set should encourage mainstream acceptance.

Kevin Maxwell was a police officer who just happens to be mixed-race of white English & black Caribbean descent and gay. The last two elements that I introduced somewhat flippantly should be insignificant in a multicultural open society as race or sexuality should never define a person, their personality, their character, their conduct, their acceptance, their status or their career especially in the service of their country. [About Kevin Maxwell]

Challenging discrimination

The subtle use of
the phrase, “the force of the law” in a previous paragraph has meant that Kevin can challenge issues of
discrimination, both racial and homophobic that he experienced at work, from
the media and from certain sections of the public. Kevin Maxwell won
his case against Scotland Yard for discrimination, bruising that the
battle for justice was. [BBC – February 2012]
[The
Independent – June 2013]

His is a fight
against many fronts of the stigma of mental illness; depression brought on by
the discrimination he suffered and standing as a man challenging unfortunately
entrenched attitudes of “cover-up and containment” deployed by institutions
that would rather discredit and intimidate than face up to complaints raised
amongst their ranks.

It is against this background that I have followed Kevin Maxwell’s story, and I found the quote he published yesterday in the blog – Godly Gay Fact.

As pertains to the quote, I always research the source and strive to attribute because that is
what must be done, and so I retweeted, "Homosexuality
is god's way of ensuring that the truly gifted aren't burdened with
children." —Sam Austin

To my mind, this quote has a disarming quality to be used in a discussion, in an argument or on a protest placard against those whose implacable religious view is that all we, as human beings must do is reproduce and propagate.

Deadening the blows of bigotry

I am all for reproducing and propagating everything that is good in the broadest sense of that goal which accommodates and appreciates diversity, but I will not stand for reproducing and propagating difference, discrimination, bigotry, hatred, denigration or any act or practice, in word or in deed that diminishes our common and shared humanity.

Where we find
people to engage, the respect for, and the interaction of allowing participants
to speak and to listen in turn, achieves much, and we make much progress.

We deaden the bigoted
stances; which reminds me of a blog I wrote on the second Sunday of November as
today, eight years ago, titled Does
gay marriage affect your marriage? That question was as disarming and it was effective; it stopped their mouths as they tackled the absurdity of their positions.

Every identity harbours diversity

The quote that inspired this blog was seemingly
directed at a particular audience, but it triggered off a somewhat negative response
from an unexpected angle; someone who took umbrage at the juxtaposition of
homosexuality and religion because of their being probably an agnostic, an atheist,
an evolutionist, a scientist or whatever else might define or not define them.

Much as we all have
our persuasions, the struggle for rights, a sense of identity and justice when in throes
of societal ambivalence of acceptance, indifference or rejection requires that
all ears get a sounding, an opinion that might gather them to a centre of
agreement.

Homosexuals are people with a history, culture, traditions, beliefs, prejudices, spirituality or the lack of the same, struggles and situations, just as anyone else anywhere else in the world, it should not define that person, but to some that is the only thing that stands out when mentioned.

Accommodating interesting opinions

We should however be
careful when in the pursuit of the broadest range of rights to people who yet
suffer issues of openness, shame, discrimination, oppression and persecution
that what we reject and resent so strongly in the campaigns for acceptance and
equality does not antagonise when the better part of valour is to inform.

Then again, the
debate is open, robust and lively, through easy quotes crystallising thoughts
or hard-won battles that Kevin Maxwell has fought.

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I have many stories to tell, I am English of Nigerian parentage, I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years, returned to the UK recently but still have wander lust - the rest is somewhere online, most likely in on blogs.